Bad Taste no. 33: holding the country to ransom

This text was corrected by hand against the scan: the strip at the head of page 14, which the machine reading did not see; image taken from the scan and its lettering transcribed (18 Oct 2026). Number 33 of Cormac's weekly Bad Taste strip: holding the country to ransom.

page 14 of the scan

Five-panel cartoon strip: a television reporter at a picket line skips the strikers to interview "one brave little woman", who is confused to learn the strikers are not literally kidnappers, and silences him with his own microphone. — Cormac, "Bad Taste" no. 33, Socialist Challenge no. 82, 8 February 1979, page 14. From the Marxists Internet Archive scan.

The strip, panel by panel

1. BAD TASTE — Cormac #33. (A TV reporter:) "Hello, viewers! The picket is over there, but we don't really want to talk to them, do we? Instead we'll talk to one brave little woman ..."

2. "... who has defied the might of the power-mad unions who are now bringing this once great nation to its knees and crippling our economy and in their greed and power lust are the worst thing to hit Britain since the Black Death [illegible]." "And what do you think of the strikers, madam?"

3. (The woman, with a placard "An end to this evil thing!"; a small sign: "To Mike in L.A. — we've lost your address!") "Strikers? But you told me that they were KIDNAPPERS!!"

4. "No, no! I told you that they were holding the country to ransom!! It's a metaphor which we use ..."

5. (Stalking off, the microphone rammed in his mouth.) "Metaphor-schmetaphor!" "Mmfgn!"